Conventional methods in cellular technology allow a frequency band to be used simultaneously by a plurality of radio base stations. In such a radio communication system, several terminals are controlled by a central unit, e.g., a radio base station, which, however, can also be a terminal itself. This central unit defines a radio cell, which indicates the spatial dimensions of the coverage area of the central unit. In general, such radio cells are represented as hexagons or circles in plan view. Such a system is represented in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 depicts a cellular network having radio cells R1 through R8. However, if a radio cell is now defined, the terminals and the central unit generate interference which extends beyond the boundary of the radio cell. This can completely or partially prevent the operation of a second radio cell that uses the same frequency channel. As an example, the same frequency could be used in radio cells R1 and R4 in FIG. 2. Because of the short distance, signals from R4 interfere with the operation of R1, and vice versa. This problem predominantly occurs when the number of allowed frequency channels is too low.
Various solutions have been proposed for this problem, which are essentially based on separating the radio channels in the frequency or code directions (FDMA and CDMA). Recently, there have also been proposals for separating the channels in the time direction. An example of this is the DECT system.